The Social Order
When New York City’s Department of Education cancelled Christopher Columbus Day earlier this month, it caught Mayor Bill de Blasio flat-footed. “I’m miffed,” he responded explaining that he hadn’t gotten a heads-up because the department is “a massive bureaucracy” and sometimes things slip into the cracks.
It’s probably fair to say that the parents of the city’s 1.1 million school children not invested in New York’s ceaseless Columbus kerfuffle but stranded during the pandemic by de Blasio’s $36 billion bureaucracy and betrayed by the United Federation of Teachers are more miffed than the mayor. As well they should be. And doubtless they wonder why the platoon of candidates now seeking to replace the term-limited de Blasio isn’t making much of an issue of the DOE’s appalling pandemic performance or the teachers’ union’s full-pay Covid-19 stay-home strike.
feed to stay on top of the news.
“We’ve got to stop this cancel culture. What they’re doing to Columbus is a slap in the face to Italian-Americans,” John Fratta, chapter leader of the Commission of Social Justice/Sons and Daughters of Italy, as well as a business promotion coordinator at Community Board 11 in the Bronx, said.
As Changing America previously reported, the city’s education board renamed Columbus Day into Indigenous Peoples’ Day on May 4. City officials like Councilman Mark Treyger (D), Rep. Tom Suozzi (D), Assembly Education Committee Chairman Michael Benedetto (D) and Councilman Robert Holden (D), all of whom are Italian descendants, say they were blindsided by the Department of Education’s (DOE) move.
School daze: It s called Columbus Day, not Italian Heritage Day nydailynews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from nydailynews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Privacy Overview
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience. Necessary